More viewers watching TV through multiple platforms

A growing number of TV viewers no longer count solely on their flat screen to watch television shows, according to a comScore study.

As technology evolves, so do consumers' habits. On-demand and on-the-go TV consumption is reflected in the 17 per cent of users who access content via two or more platforms, according to the report. The multi-screen ecosystem includes consumers who used TV and Internet, TV and mobile, TV and Internet and mobile, and Internet and mobile.

Still, the majority of viewers - more than 70 per cent - fall into the TV-only group, accessing content by no other platform than a traditional television set. The remaining 11 per cent of consumers watch programs in digital-only format, through the Internet or mobile technology, comScore reported.

"The averages don't tell the entire story," the study said. Sports, news and young adult networks clocked as much as a third of their audiences among multi-screen users, most choosing both TV and Internet. ComScore chalked the results up to networks making more of an effort recently to provide TV programming on various digital platforms.

The results show that multi-screen and digital-only consumers tend to align with networks' key demographic audiences, though there seems to be little gender bias in any of the three viewing categories.

The study also investigated the existence of "concurrent" media users - those who use TV and the Internet within the same half-hour time period. ComScore reported that it is actually very common for people to use the Internet while watching TV, and more specifically, almost half of those users are checking Facebook while watching.

ComScore's study implemented new methods developed specifically to modernise the way content viewership habits are measured. Using a 10,000-member panel for a five-week test, the company discovered that while consumers may be expanding their utensils, their appetite for watching TV is still intact.